jesse_jackson.jpgSELMA, Alabama (AP) _ Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson says current threats to voting rights make this year's Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Alabama more than a commemoration.

The annual event taking place Sunday in Selma commemorates the beating of civil rights demonstrators on "Bloody Sunday'' in 1965 as they began a voting rights march from that city to Montgomery.

The march prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, which opened Southern polling places to millions of African-Americans.

Jackson said efforts to diminish the effects of the act continue.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge Wednesday to a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

Jackson said the South will see more attempts to dilute minority voters' rights if the Supreme Court throws out a requirement for the Justice Department to review election law changes in states with a history of discrimination.